>>>>>>>If every corn producer sells at exactly the same price and there is no semblance of competition, then yes, I'd call them a cartel too - especially if their prices just happened to change all at the same time.
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>>>>>>They do because their prices are dictated to the global commodity market which corn is traded on.
>>>>>>The same is true of gold. Here's a simple test you can do at home. Go to a jewelry supply store and price a specified weight of gold chain. Write down the closing price of gold on that day. Go back to the same store a month later and price the same weight of gold chain and look at the closing price of gold on the exchange. You should not be surprised by the results.
>>>>>
>>>>>Where in that are you implying that there is lack of competition? If the price of a 14k Gold chain at all jewellery stores in city x is exactly the same at all times, then maybe there is something to talk about. But is that the case? Unlikely. The prices may be similar, but due to competition between stores, the prices will vary. This is not true of gas at the pumps. The prices at all stations (at least here in Toronto) are exactly the same - to the tenth of a cent. And they all change at the same time. Where is the competition that the free market is supposed to engender?
>>>>
>>>>Keep in mind, this market is as free as the heroin market is to the addict. The oil companies, oil suppliers, oil speculaters, etc all know you are absolutely addicted to oil (a strategic commodity that can cause a nation to fail) and they can charge you absolutely anything for it. See the current situation for example.
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>>>How can a company increase supply, e.g. if it's stimulated by prices, if it is effectively prohibited from increasing supply?
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>>This is a world oil market.
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>>Where outside of the US is it prohibited from increasing supply?
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>>Has demand grown 40% this year?
>
>At least, you have made exception for USA, i.e. you admit, if I understand correctly, that free market cannot be held responsible for USA oil problems. In regard to world, you may also exclude from 'free market' OPEC countries and China, and something else actually... but it is already too much. Imho, it is quite obvious that 'free market' does not exist in oil world, and it is not Exxon fault.
>In regard, to big increase in prices this year: these things never go by straight lines. It is uneven process, stronger one year, weaker in another; after all, free market did not die completely yet, so it fluctuates.

This is not an example of free market. The oil industry is absolutely a cartel in control of a strategic industry (strategic for most of the countries on the planet). When the oil speculation on supplies is done by the same people who own the oil refinery, tansportation, and marketing companies, and the end customers are absolutely reliant on the oil, the speculators can pay any price for the supplies because the refinery, tansportation, and marketing companies can charge the end customers whatever the cost + profit on top, and all the money anywhere down the chain goes into the same pockets.